Dual parasitic infections deadly to marine mammals
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 - 22:00
in Biology & Nature
This is a harbor seal and pup. Seals and other marine mammals in the Pacific Northwest are being infected by two kinds of parasites that normally infect land mammals. A study of tissue samples from 161 marine mammals that died between 2004 and 2009 in the Pacific Northwest reveals an association between severe illness and co-infection with two kinds of parasites normally found in land animals. One, Sarcocystis neurona, is a newcomer to the northwest coastal region of North America and is not known to infect people, while the other, Toxoplasma gondii, has been established there for some time and caused a large outbreak of disease in people in 1995.